Arcade Vs NES - Altered Beast 

Lol!

It's such a ridiculous gameplay feature that I think I like the NES version more because of it.

This dude did not skip leg day, that's for sure.

@@GameLibrarianWithABear Zeus gave this guy a pair of Jordans with flubber in them.

Lmao! I think you're onto something with the Micro Machines Edition. Maybe you got a free car with your purchase of the Famicom game. It's not really worth playing but it's so much more playable than the SMS.

Thanks my friend! At first I thought the small sprites were laughable but then I started to appreciate it since it made the game way more playable than the SMS port.

@@RetroComparisons You're welcome! 👍🏼Yeah at first with these comparisons my initial thoughts too go to what looks bad but then I remind myself they're 8 bit so they do what they can lol Obviously if I had to pick of every port I'd go arcade but I agree overall the gameplay is what matters besides the graphics, sound etc so I can enjoy a game if the gameplay is smooth sacrificing sound and graphics if its fun you know?

@@MKF30 Oh yeah absolutely. At the end of the day it's all about how it plays and graphics don't matter as much though that would have been a hard argument to make to my younger self lol! With these ports I always feel like they should be graded on a curve because I think I'd take the arcade port over the home consoles 99 out of 100 times.

@@RetroComparisons haha I hear ya. Same here. I think when we're younger we tend to misjudge games often especially with graphics thinking thats the most important thing 😄 I used to be that way myself lol. Good point.

Let me know what you think after you try it out. Personally I thought it was so much better in terms of gameplay and I thought it was cool that there are levels that aren't in the Genesis or arcade versions.

@@RetroComparisons I just tried out the first five levels and it was a blast! The hitboxes are a little out of whack in that your kicks and punches seem to reach a lot farther than the character sprite's actual length. I did some quick tests and in some instances I was able to hit enemies that were a full two sprites/16 pixels away from my character's limbs; I even got to accidentally kill some enemies that were *BEHIND* my character, like wtf. Likewise some enemies can hit you before their sprite even touches yours as well. Of course, this mostly played to my advantage once I got used to it so no issue there, but I don't think I've ever played a game where the hitboxes were so exaggeratedly loose before. A bit of an issue was that the character can jump ridiculously high indeed as seen in your video, but not very far, so the platforming elements don't quite work. Particularly in level 4, there are some platforms/pits that can be easily reached/jumped over once you get the bear transformation and its rolling jump attack, but if you miss one of the power ups and your character is still a human, these same platforms/pits are too far away/too wide for him to reach/jump over, so I lost quite a few lives there that I shouldn't have. Other than that, as I already said, I had a really good time with it! it sure runs circles around the SMS in terms of gameplay and fluidity, and while the smaller sprites might not be anywhere as detailed/arcade accurate as the SMS version, they do the job just fine and are charming enough in their own way. The levels seem to be shorter than in the SMS version as well, which I think plays to its advantage as the SMS version drags on and on (guess they had to make the levels extra-slow to compensate in duration for that one missing level). I even kind of like the music in the NES version more; can't really put my finger on it exactly why, but can't help but feel that it's got a bit more of an "umph" to it than the SMS version. I also was very gladly surprised by the extra levels (playing as the lion and the shark was really cool, I wonder what other extra transformations/levels are in there) Overall, I think this is my favorite 8-bit port of the game (microcomputer version included), and I really wish the Master System version had followed this approach; even without the extra levels, the smaller-sprites-but-better-speed thing really makes one heck of a difference in the most positive of ways. :)

@@KittyMeow1984 That was an awesome read! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this, I always love hearing other people's experiences. I completely agree with you on every take here. The jumping in particular was out of whack with the height and especially distance making for an unpleasant platforming experience. Still though it's leagues ahead of the SMS port when it comes to playability and getting a unique experience out of a 35 year old game is so cool.

@@RetroComparisons Haha, I love hearing about other people's experiences as well! It's always fun to compare notes about games you've played, and it's also a great way to learn about games that you haven't tried but should; there are so many games that I've overlooked because they were critically panned by gaming magazines back in the day but then I hear about them again like 20-30 years later and I decide to give them a twirl just because, and they turn out to be great??? Or simply games that never made it to our respective regions but now are... erm, more readily available, wink wink nudge nudge. ;)

@@KittyMeow1984 Lol! I have no idea what you're talking about with these games being readily available...these are all..um..backups. You're so right, a whole generation grew up not playing certain games based off of like 1 review. I guess it's the same way with the internet era. Don't get me wrong, I loved older AVGN videos but there's a lot of games that have a bad rap just based off of those videos too, many undeservedly so. I've come across so many games doing this channel that I would have never played otherwise and there's a lot of gems. Well there's a lot of stinkers too that I wish I never discovered like Rise Of The Robots but the good outweighs the bad.

Altered Beast is a hard game for me to judge also but for different reasons. It was one of the first games I had on the Genesis and my collection was never that big all the way up to getting the N64 so I played this game a lot and hence I really liked it. However, it's hard to separate actual good games from nostalgia making a game better than it really is. With that out of the way I think surprisingly I'd take the NES over the SMS which is a weird thing to say with Nintendo beating Sega at their own game, though I felt the same way about Alien Syndrome recently too. The SMS port looks so much better than the NES port but it was so hard to play that I can't go with that one if I was forced to choose. Lol what a weird choice to have cute cats as the power-up meter. Maybe they are Zeus's cats?

@@RetroComparisons I can definitely see your point about the NES version ultimately being more playable. The stuttery-ness of the graphics on that version are a real mess, and whatever other problems the NES version may have, it at least gives you a wide view and plays smoothly.

I couldn't agree more with your sentiments on both this and the SMS ports. I'd rather play neither but if I had to choose the NES port is so much less frustrating than the SMS version. Also, unrelated to this but the timing on your comment was impeccable. I had just mentioned you to another viewer "Old Fan" who frequently comments on my channel. He was talking about how much he loves Thunder Force IV and it made me immediately think of you. As soon as I finished typing I checked the rest of my unread comments and saw you had just posted your comment here.

I was not expecting more levels and was super confused when the 2nd level was completely different than what I was expecting with the dragon level.

Totally, no contest

Exactly. This is the worst looking console port of this game but it's so much more playable than the SMS version.

I'm disappointed we didn't get a trashy 3DO game in the vein of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties featuring Pamela Anderson and calling the game Altered Breast.

I went down the rabbit hole of the original GLOW and I think it was either Hollywood or vine who was also in plumbers.

@@johnmp3828 Oh wow I never knew that. The only thing I really know about GLOW besides the Netflix show was that Ivory came from there.

Lol! The guy in this game needs to stop what he's doing immediately and start playing basketball.

@@RetroComparisons am I right that the NES version had more beast forms in it?..

@@oldfan4049 Yep you are correct, there's levels and beasts that aren't in the arcade or Genesis port which is super cool.

Lol! I think the character had flubber in his shoes.

Some NES ports were more like reinterpretations. This, Gauntlet, Strider, Gyruss, Rygar and several others took the "same name, different game" approach, and most of the time it worked well.

There's no doubt that if you're looking for the authentic game the Famicom version is not the way to go. However, it's a pretty decent port all things considered and I'd take that over the SMS version any day of the week.

@@SomeOrangeCat This is a pretty good interpretation given the system limitations. Much better than the SMS port.

The gameplay is pretty good in this one compared to the SMS but the arcade is definitely the way to go for this one with the Genesis being a good 2nd place.

It's certainly not a great port but I think it's more playable than the SMS port. Having said that, these days there's really no reason to play either with easy access to MAME and the Genesis version.